There has long been a need for means to organize, store and transport hardware items, electronics components, plumbing items, fishing tackle and the like. A great variety of organizers have been developed over the years to satisfy such needs. More recently, manufacturers have produced relatively small, transparent or translucent plastic containers, often referred to as utility boxes, having snap fit lids and multiple compartments. Some of these utility boxes are designed to permit the user to alter the size and number of the compartments. For example, Plano Molding Company, the assignee of the present invention, produces a line of injection molded plastic utility boxes under the mark "StowAway" which vary in size from 133/4 inches.times.91/8 inches.times.2 inches at the large end to 45/8 inches.times.27/8 inches.times.1 inch at the smaller end. These utility boxes are inexpensive and have become extremely popular for a variety of user needs. Typically, a user maintains several of the utility boxes for organizing, devoting each box to a particular class, category or type of items.
Racks have been developed to store a number of the utility boxes. Some of the racks have handles so that they, and the utility boxes, may be transported. Users, however, often prefer to simply store and transport a number of the utility boxes in soft sided bags, and a variety of specialty bags have been produced for this purpose.
One drawback of existing transportable racks and bags for holding utility boxes arises from the fact that they do not permit the user to view the entire contents of all of the utility boxes at the same time while the boxes remain in the storage unit. Racks permit the user to view only the end portions of the utility boxes, while bags permit viewing of only the uppermost box (if stacked) or the end portions of several of the boxes, depending on the orientation of the utility boxes stored in the bags. Because each utility box normally has multiple compartments holding diverse items, it is often necessary for the user to remove several of the boxes from the rack or bag in order to find the desired item or to select the desired utility box.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a transportable storage device for utility boxes which affords the user the ability to view the entire contents of all of the utility boxes simultaneously and, alternatively, to selectively view the contents of, and obtain access to, some (but not all) of them simultaneously.
So-called "wraps" have long been used to store tools and various containers and items. Examples of such wraps are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 36,710; 2,679,877; 3,827,552; 5,002,401; 5,547,077; and 5,779,033. In each of these prior art wrap type storage and transport units, the items are stored in pockets provided along a flexible sheet which is foldable to assume a more compact and transportable condition. The '077 patent to Wang discloses a wrap comprising an elongated strip of flexible material with a series of pockets attached to the strip. The wrap, when in an unfolded condition, can be hung by a hook from a hole at one end of the strip to display the contents of each of the pockets.
None of the foregoing prior art wraps are capable of satisfying the requirements noted above. In particular, while the wrap disclosed by Wang would permit the contents of all utility boxes to be viewed at the same time (when hung and unwrapped), Wang fails to disclose means for transporting the wrap and its contents, or for permitting visual access to the entire contents of some, but not all, of the utility boxes while all the boxes remain stored.